Joseph Hall
Joseph Hall
Joseph Hallwas an English bishop, satirist and moralist. His contemporaries knew him as a devotional writer, and a high-profile controversialist of the early 1640s. In church politics, he tended in fact to a middle way...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth1 July 1574
troops crowds sometimes
Virtues go ever in troops; they go so thick, that sometimes some are hid in the crowd; which yet are, but appear not.
christian men evil
Christian society is like a bundle of sticks laid together, whereof one kindles another. Solitary men have fewest provocations to evil, but, again, fewest incitations to good. So much as doing good is better than not doing evil will I account Christian good-fellowship better than an hermitish and melancholy solitariness.
soul atmosphere society
Society is the atmosphere of souls; and we necessarily imbibe from it something which is either infectious or healthful.
ears mouths slander
There would not be so many open mouths if there were not so many open ears.
hate men sin
Not only commission makes a sin. A man is guilty of all those sins he hateth not. If I cannot avoid all, yet I will hate all.
happiness cutting men
God loves to see his creatures happy; our lawful delight is His; they know not God that think to please Him with making themselves miserable. The idolaters thought it a fit service for Baal to cut and lance themselves; never any holy man looked for thanks from the true God by wronging himself.
nice greatness contentment
Earthly greatness is a nice thing, and requires so much chariness in the managing, as the contentment of it cannot requite.
ambition humility pride
Worldly ambition is founded on pride or envy, but emulation, or laudable ambition, is actually founded in humility; for it evidently implies that we have a low opinion of our present attainments, and think it necessary to be advanced.
adversity weather numbers
Surely the mischief of hypocrisy can never be enough inveighed against. When religion is in request, it is the chief malady of the church, and numbers die of it; though because it is a subtle and inward evil, it be little perceived. It is to be feared there are many sick of it, that look well and comely in God's outward worship, and they may pass well in good weather, in times of peace; but days of adversity are days of trial.
mean guests welcome
For whom he means to make an often guest, One dish shall serve; and welcome make the rest.
giving littles study
It is of no small commendation to manage a little well. To live well in abundance is the praise of the estate, not of the person. I will study more how to give a good account of my little, than how to make it more.
environmental world letters
How endless is that volume which God hath written of the world! Every creature is a letter, every day a new page.
cases lows worst
And, if I were so low that I accounted myself the worst of all, yet some would account themselves in worse case.
soul sin
It is not sin that kills the soul, but impenitence.